Everyone has heard of the poles. Santa is said to live at the north pole, and the south pole is the coldest place on earth, and the largest block of ice around. But what if all that ice were to melt? Well it's happening right now, and if something isnt done, there can be dire consequences that could affect the entire world.
This melting of the ice caps is believed to be caused by Global Warming. Most people have heard of global warming, but not everyone knows exactly what it is. Global warming is the phenomena that is occurring due to gasses emitted into the atmosphere by humans. Normally the atmosphere has its own greenhouse gasses such as water vapor and carbon dioxide that serve to trap in some of the heat that comes into the atmosphere and bounces off the earth and then leaves. Trapping in the heat allows the Earth to stay at a comfortable 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But, gasses emitted by humans, such as Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide, have begun to build up in the atmosphere, increasing the amount of heat trapped inside, and causing the temperature of the Earth to rise. This brings about drier climates, more precipitation, possibly stronger hurricanes and fiercer storms, and it is slowly melting the polar ice caps.
Although it seems like the melting is happening at a slow rate, with predicted rises to be around 10 cm per century, this can actually have a huge impact on coastal areas and lowlands. An increase of as little as even 2 inches can cause flooding. But, there is a problem in that exact outcomes are not very well known, and scientists are not even sure that the global warming that is melting the ice caps is caused by humans. The only melted ice that would cause rising ocean levels is if the ice on greenland or the ice at the south pole were to melt, because ice that is already floating, such as at the north pole, is already displacing water, and if it were to melt, would not cause a change in ocean level.
There are also problems with ice caps on mountains being melted, which could lead towards more problems. Because of the global warming, the normal air temperatures are rising in various places. This is making ice in places like the Himalayas melt, which could have devestating effects if it were to flood any of the mountain lakes in the area. This would cause large amounts of flooding that could reach populated areas.
There have been attempts to stop global warming and thus to end the melting of the ice caps by cutting down on the production and use of products that emit green house gasses. This has not been very effective however as not all countries can follow these demands, as it would cause great devastation to their economies. Its problems like these that need to be overcome. I think that more research should be done to find out other ways to stop this problem, and maybe even repair the damage that has been done.
What can you do about it?
More INFO
Some information about the melting patterns
An article from Nature
A site with lots of environmental information
The EPA's official global warming site, has lots of good information
